On Tuesday, April 16, 2019 at 4:59:41 PM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
On 4/16/2019 12:02 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Tuesday, April 16, 2019 at 8:17:54 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Monday, April 15, 2019 at 8:01:45 PM UTC-7, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Mon, 15 Apr 2019 14:06:55 +1000, James
wrote:
This morning I was riding to meet a friend. I was going to be a
little late, which isn't unusual for me. I made a left turn from a
highway on to another rural road that is also 100 km/h speed limit and
quite busy too. Maybe 100m from the turn is a rail crossing. I
noticed a car behind me as I approached the crossing. The driver
wasn't going much faster than me at that stage. About 30m from the
crossing the lights started flashing and bells were ringing. A train
was approaching and there are no boom gates at this crossing.

I applied the brakes and gently rolled to a stop. The driver in the
car following me accelerated, past me, and drove illegally through the
crossing.

I wasn't bothered, but I did wonder why the rush considering the ease
of stopping.

The psychology of driving. I can go fast (with virtually no actual
effort on my part), therefore I am entitled to go fast and anything that
prevents me from going fast is an annoyance. This is paired with the
average driver's belief that they are an excellent, even exceptional,
driver (even though they are at best average). Thus we drive fast and
take chances.

Having actually raced professionally (or semi-professionally as you like - I wasn't being paid - just given equipment) I know exactly how to corner and so am MUCH faster than most people. But I don't drive dangerously as most people do because I know the results of being stupid on anything that moves.

I drove up to Clear Lake to see if I could develop an overnighter. This meant taking a backroad on a long climb. All of the motels in Clear Lake were gone. Though I understand that now that Trump's in office they are back in business.

In any case I was returning on the highway and just as I entered the downhill stretch a Mercedes sports coupe passed me going 30 mph faster than me I knew what was ahead and gritted my teeth. Sure enough that SOB spun out at the first curve and almost went over the cliff.

And then the stupid ass jumped on the gas in order to stay in front of me. But he had frightened himself and his passenger so much that he was slowing to 10 mph in the turns. With me on his rear bumper he finally pulled over and I drove by at a reasonable speed and he couldn't even begin to keep up. My tires weren't making a sound so I know I wasn't pushing the pace to show him up.

So my 1999 Ford Taurus outran a Mercedes without even trying. Most Corvette owners know better than to push the pace because the car is far faster than 99% of the drivers.

I parked the car out in front of my house and an SUV came around the corner so fast it hit the left rear quarter so hard that it actually bent the frame so badly that the tire was 5" above the ground. I think that the driver was going to run but the impact had set off the air bags and she only made it a half block before the engine shut off automatically. Nice quiet residential street. To do that she had to have come around that corner at least at 40 mph and been accelerating. It literally threw my car out into the middle of the street.

As of this posting, good drivers are so rare that they are a protected species. Women in particular drive so badly that if there was any actual traffic law enforcement most of them wouldn't have a license very shortly.

Around the Fruitvale district in Oakland the punks put on a "sideshow" last night that ended with stores being broken into and fires set and guns being fired at one another. Sure is nice to have sanctuary cities isn't it?

On Tuesday, April 16, 2019 at 10:02:49 AM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:
On Tuesday, April 16, 2019 at 8:17:54 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Monday, April 15, 2019 at 8:01:45 PM UTC-7, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Mon, 15 Apr 2019 14:06:55 +1000, James
wrote:
This morning I was riding to meet a friend. I was going to be a
little late, which isn't unusual for me. I made a left turn from a
highway on to another rural road that is also 100 km/h speed limit and
quite busy too. Maybe 100m from the turn is a rail crossing. I
noticed a car behind me as I approached the crossing. The driver
wasn't going much faster than me at that stage. About 30m from the
crossing the lights started flashing and bells were ringing. A train
was approaching and there are no boom gates at this crossing.

I applied the brakes and gently rolled to a stop. The driver in the
car following me accelerated, past me, and drove illegally through the
crossing.

I wasn't bothered, but I did wonder why the rush considering the ease
of stopping.

The psychology of driving. I can go fast (with virtually no actual
effort on my part), therefore I am entitled to go fast and anything that
prevents me from going fast is an annoyance. This is paired with the
average driver's belief that they are an excellent, even exceptional,
driver (even though they are at best average). Thus we drive fast and
take chances.

Having actually raced professionally (or semi-professionally as you like - I wasn't being paid - just given equipment) I know exactly how to corner and so am MUCH faster than most people. But I don't drive dangerously as most people do because I know the results of being stupid on anything that moves.

I drove up to Clear Lake to see if I could develop an overnighter. This meant taking a backroad on a long climb. All of the motels in Clear Lake were gone. Though I understand that now that Trump's in office they are back in business.

In any case I was returning on the highway and just as I entered the downhill stretch a Mercedes sports coupe passed me going 30 mph faster than me I knew what was ahead and gritted my teeth. Sure enough that SOB spun out at the first curve and almost went over the cliff.

And then the stupid ass jumped on the gas in order to stay in front of me. But he had frightened himself and his passenger so much that he was slowing to 10 mph in the turns. With me on his rear bumper he finally pulled over and I drove by at a reasonable speed and he couldn't even begin to keep up. My tires weren't making a sound so I know I wasn't pushing the pace to show him up.

So my 1999 Ford Taurus outran a Mercedes without even trying. Most Corvette owners know better than to push the pace because the car is far faster than 99% of the drivers.

I parked the car out in front of my house and an SUV came around the corner so fast it hit the left rear quarter so hard that it actually bent the frame so badly that the tire was 5" above the ground. I think that the driver was going to run but the impact had set off the air bags and she only made it a half block before the engine shut off automatically. Nice quiet residential street. To do that she had to have come around that corner at least at 40 mph and been accelerating. It literally threw my car out into the middle of the street.

As of this posting, good drivers are so rare that they are a protected species. Women in particular drive so badly that if there was any actual traffic law enforcement most of them wouldn't have a license very shortly.

Around the Fruitvale district in Oakland the punks put on a "sideshow" last night that ended with stores being broken into and fires set and guns being fired at one another. Sure is nice to have sanctuary cities isn't it?

On Tuesday, April 16, 2019 at 4:59:41 PM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
On 4/16/2019 12:02 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Tuesday, April 16, 2019 at 8:17:54 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Monday, April 15, 2019 at 8:01:45 PM UTC-7, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Mon, 15 Apr 2019 14:06:55 +1000, James
wrote:
This morning I was riding to meet a friend. I was going to be a
little late, which isn't unusual for me. I made a left turn from a
highway on to another rural road that is also 100 km/h speed limit and
quite busy too. Maybe 100m from the turn is a rail crossing. I
noticed a car behind me as I approached the crossing. The driver
wasn't going much faster than me at that stage. About 30m from the
crossing the lights started flashing and bells were ringing. A train
was approaching and there are no boom gates at this crossing.

I applied the brakes and gently rolled to a stop. The driver in the
car following me accelerated, past me, and drove illegally through the
crossing.

I wasn't bothered, but I did wonder why the rush considering the ease
of stopping.

The psychology of driving. I can go fast (with virtually no actual
effort on my part), therefore I am entitled to go fast and anything that
prevents me from going fast is an annoyance. This is paired with the
average driver's belief that they are an excellent, even exceptional,
driver (even though they are at best average). Thus we drive fast and
take chances.

Having actually raced professionally (or semi-professionally as you like - I wasn't being paid - just given equipment) I know exactly how to corner and so am MUCH faster than most people. But I don't drive dangerously as most people do because I know the results of being stupid on anything that moves.

I drove up to Clear Lake to see if I could develop an overnighter. This meant taking a backroad on a long climb. All of the motels in Clear Lake were gone. Though I understand that now that Trump's in office they are back in business.

In any case I was returning on the highway and just as I entered the downhill stretch a Mercedes sports coupe passed me going 30 mph faster than me I knew what was ahead and gritted my teeth. Sure enough that SOB spun out at the first curve and almost went over the cliff.

And then the stupid ass jumped on the gas in order to stay in front of me. But he had frightened himself and his passenger so much that he was slowing to 10 mph in the turns. With me on his rear bumper he finally pulled over and I drove by at a reasonable speed and he couldn't even begin to keep up. My tires weren't making a sound so I know I wasn't pushing the pace to show him up.

So my 1999 Ford Taurus outran a Mercedes without even trying. Most Corvette owners know better than to push the pace because the car is far faster than 99% of the drivers.

I parked the car out in front of my house and an SUV came around the corner so fast it hit the left rear quarter so hard that it actually bent the frame so badly that the tire was 5" above the ground. I think that the driver was going to run but the impact had set off the air bags and she only made it a half block before the engine shut off automatically. Nice quiet residential street. To do that she had to have come around that corner at least at 40 mph and been accelerating. It literally threw my car out into the middle of the street.

As of this posting, good drivers are so rare that they are a protected species. Women in particular drive so badly that if there was any actual traffic law enforcement most of them wouldn't have a license very shortly.

Around the Fruitvale district in Oakland the punks put on a "sideshow" last night that ended with stores being broken into and fires set and guns being fired at one another. Sure is nice to have sanctuary cities isn't it?

Now that Trump is president, these hip-hop sideshows are out of control! Burning buses, looting trucks -- does the President condone this sort of lawlessness? Is he FOR violence?

-- Jay Beattie.

Oakland? Sonny Barger's Oakland??

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Sonny was about as nice a guy as you could meet. He because rich enough that in todays dollars he would be a multimillionaire. He wrote a lot of books and he was an actor in a lot of movies. The Hell's Angels at that time was an "outlaw" motorcycle gang only in the sense that they didn't take any **** from anyone.

I guess like most liberals you do not see a state's problems as a state's responsibility.

Depends on the problem. For instance, Michigan poisoning their poorer Flint citizens by making sure the drinking water flowed through lead pipes. That is fully the state's responsibility. Republican Rick Snyder was governor during this. Not surprising. Other problems such as the preponderance of opium pills being prescribed to citizens is not so state specific. West Virginia seems to have a huge problem with this. But many other states do too. Is it West Virginia's problem that they seem to have the evilest doctors that get such enjoyment out of getting their patients hooked on opium? Or is it a national problem concerning prescriptions, drug vendor companies, doctors, and patients? I'd say the latter. Its not exactly state specific or the responsibility of that state only to solve its problem.

I rode for Kawasaki on a 250 cc two stroke disk valve road racer. That is a bit faster than a bicycle.

Huh. I used to own a 350cc Kawasaki two stroke rotary (disc) valve bike.
1970 Avenger A7, IIRC.

Not that I was ever a racer. On a motorcycle I'm pretty careful and
conservative.

--
- Frank Krygowski

The point I was making wasn't that I raced but that because I raced I know how to corner. And almost no one does. Setting up properly for corners isn't something that happens accidently. If I approach someone approaching a high speed or sharp curve I have to be EXTREMELY careful of them because they take the wrong line and have to hit the brakes and slow up for a turn into which they went slow in the first place. So I prefer to get out in front of these people to begin with or to ride far on the back at a snail's pace.